March 1, 1999, 27-year-old American herpetologist named Ralf Denham and his team exploring the Sonoran Desert in order to find new species of snake. One particular species of snake that they were hoping to find is the Night Rattlesnake (Crotalus moorei), a new species of rattlesnake which is the rarest snake. Then, one of the team members named Vanessa Heard (22) spotted a new species of rattlesnake called Ghost Rattlesnake (Crotalus vanderhami), it was discovered last year in Sonoran Desert by other herpers as Crotalus armstrongi vanderhami, a subspecies of Western Dusky Rattlesnake of Jalisco and Nayarit of Mexico.
"Check this rattlesnake." Vanessa said.
"Holy mackerel, Ghost Rattlesnake (Crotalus vanderhami). This was the last year's new discovered subspecies of Western Dusky Rattlesnake (Crotalus armstrongi) of Jalisco and Nayarit of Mexico, until four months afterwards, it is classified as a separated species." Ralf Denham said.
"That's total of 43 distinct species of rattlesnakes now." One of the other team members Jonathan Larsson (23) said.
"You are correct Jonathan." Ralf Denham said.
"So, what are we going to do now then?" Vanessa Heard asked.
"This new species is already having five new recognized subspecies, the Banded Ghost Rattlesnake (Crotalus vanderhami davidsoni) of Lytle Creek of California, The Arizona Ghost Rattlesnake (Crotalus vanderhami vanderhami) of Sonoran Deserts of California, Arizona and northern Mexico, Chihuahuan Desert Ghost Rattlesnake (Crotalus vanderhami borjani) of Chihuahuan Desert of northern Mexico and Zacatecas Ghost Rattlesnake (Crotalus vanderhami zacatecanus) of Zacatecas in Mexico." Ralf Denham explained. "We need to document and taking photographs of this new rattlesnake species."
"Alright, but please be careful. Just because we've discovered many venomous snakes here doesn't mean you can do something stupid." Vanessa Heard advised.
"We already got snake tongs to handle this snake very gently." Ralf Denham said.
"Out of five subspecies, I'm certain that the Banded Ghost Rattlesnake, Lytle Creek Ghost Rattlesnake, Chihuahuan Desert Ghost Rattlesnake and Zacatecas Ghost Rattlesnakes are among the four subspecies that is a potential candidate for moving from subspecies to separate species in the near future." Jonathan Larsson said.
"But for now, document and photograph as much as you can on this species, so we can prove it's a species to everybody else in the future." Vanessa Heard said.
"I'm certain that those four subspecies that Jonathan mentioned were likely candidates for classifying from subspecies to a separate species i the near future." Ralf Denham said. "That's something we need to monitor these four subspecies."
"As soon as you guys take all the photos and document everything that you need, let's head back to our place. We've been out here for hours." Vanessa Heard suggested.
"Good idea, Vanessa." Ralf Denham replied.
"No sign of Night Rattlesnake, we better head back to camp, the sunset is approaching." Jonathan Larsson said.
"Yeah, let's get back to our home base, everyone. We'll continue to look for the Night Rattlesnake another day." Ralf Denham said.
They arrived back to base camp at sunset and then they started cooking dinner.
"There's a non-venomous snake sneaking into our camp." Jonathan Larsson said as he approached the snake while readied his snake tongs.
"What does it look like?" Vanessa Heard asked
"It's a new species of Kingsnake called the Yellow Striped King Snake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus), it was discovered last year as Lampropeltis alterna sonoranicus, as a new subspecies of Gray-banded Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus), then a few months afterwards, it is classified from subspecies to distinct species." Jonathan Larsson said.
"Another new species. It's amazing how many of them are still undiscovered out here." Vanessa Heard said.
Everyone gathered around to look at the new discovered species of Kingsnake.
"This is a nice specimen. There are seven recently new discovered subspecies of the Yellow-Striped Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus). There are Sonoran Desert Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus sonoranicus) of Sonoran Deserts of California, Arizona and northern Mexico, San Diego County Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus wilmingtoni), Lytle Creek Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus lytlus) of Lytle Creek in California, Big Horns Mountain Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus bighorni) of Big Horn Mountains Wilderness in Arizona, Alejandro's Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus alejandroni) of Durango in Mexico, Alexander Springs Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus alexanderi) of Alexander Springs Wilderness in Florida, Fort Defiance Kingsnake (Lampropeltis sonoranicus emmeticus) of Fort Defiance State Park in Iowa and Denham's White-headed Kingsnake of Nye County, Nevada." Ralf Denham said. "Six of them are potential candidates to be classified from subspecies to separated species: Lytle Creek Kingsnake, Big Horn Mountains Kingsnake, Alejandro's Kingsnake, Alexander Springs King Snake, Fort Defiance Kingsnake and Denham's White-headed Kingsnake."
"Wow, I would never expected that one new species has seven recently discovered recognized subspecies, six of them can be the candidate." Vanessa Heard said.
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Snakes: The World of The Serpents
RandomJoining Ralph Denham, a well-known herpetologist who has been specialized in snakes as he travels around the world to find and documenting all kinds of snakes including new species.
